Young ties Loy as Cavaliers roll

A 26-0 run helped Walsh pull away to an 82-54 victory over Ohio Dominican and enable Jeff Young to tie Steve Loy's school record for most wins by a men's basketball coach.

Mike Popovich CantonRep.com sports writer @mpopovichREP

Walsh University head coach Jeff Young does not put much stock in his personal feats.

His hope Thursday night was for the Cavaliers to take care of business on the court.

The record he matched when they did so was a bonus.

A 26-0 run helped Walsh pull away to an 82-54 victory over Ohio Dominican and enable Young to tie Steve Loy's school record for most wins by a men's basketball coach.

Young is 254-55 in 10 seasons with the Cavs.

"As far as the record goes, I think I've probably been here longer than any of those guys," Young said. "If you're here long enough, you're eventually going to break some records."

Young led Walsh to the NAIA Division II national championship in 2005 and has coached two 30-win teams and eight 20-win teams. His .821 winning percentage going into Thursday was third among active NCAA Division II coaches.

"I feel pretty fortunate," Young said. "I've had good players. You can't compete in this game unless you have good players."

Young spent more than 11 years as an assistant coach on Loy's staff. The program experienced tough times shortly before he was hired as head coach. Loy died in early 2004 due to complications from liver cancer.

Thoughts of Loy and Dan Peters are going through his mind these days. Peters, Young's head coach at Walsh, took a leave of absence as Akron's director of basketball operations in December to fight pancreatic cancer.

"I learned a lot from both those guys," Young said. "... I'm still extremely close with Coach Peters. It has been a tough month and a half with what Coach Peters is going through and watching Steve go through the same thing 10 years ago."

Young on Thursday watched the Cavs (12-3, 8-3) rebound from their first loss in over a month and maintain a share of first place in the GLIAC South Division.

Walsh broke open the game by scoring the final 16 points of the first half for a 44-23 lead at the break. The Cavs also scored the first 10 points of the second half.

"It all starts on the defensive end, rebound the ball and get stops," Walsh guard Jesse Hardin said. "We're at our best when we run in transition."

A finish by Hardin early in the second half exemplified what kind of night it was for the Cavs.

There was initial concern when starting guard Brad DuPont crashed into the Ohio Dominican bench during the flow of play. DuPont, however, regrouped, ran behind the scorer's table as the Cavs pushed the ball and was about to re-enter the court when Hardin dunked in an alley-oop from Davonte Beard.

"You can tell it's your night when something like that happens," Young said.

Hardin and DuPont led Walsh with 16 points apiece, while Beard added 10. DuPont also had game highs of 10 rebounds and four assists.

Eleven players scored for the Cavs, who were upset by Lake Erie on Saturday.

"It was a tough loss, and we don't like losing," Hardin said. "Us getting a little embarrassed gave us more energy to come back and win this game."